Keep northern towns good places to live

Strategic planning for municipalities is more important now than ever, for at least three reasons:
•higher levels of government continue to cut back funds and download service responsibilities;
•unorganized areas are being included in, or added to, the municipal system through SSABs, both taxation and service delivery; and
•wherever the commercial/industrial tax base erodes, the residential tax burden increases.
Quetico Centre staff have facilitated strategic planning for several Northwestern Ontario municipalities, and currently are working with Atikokan and Englehart.
Atikokan’s effort is community-oriented and led by the AEDC. It is starting with “grassroots participation” through a series of brainstorming and priority-setting sessions. All citizens are invited to get involved in evening meetings.
Englehart is doing a municipal plan, which will address the issues for which the town’s administration is primarily accountable. Therefore, council, its committees, and the town staff will work on their vision, goals, and objectives first.
Community input will come later.
The focus and methods are different but the basic issue is similar and applies to most northern communities. That issue is to ensure survival at the level the citizens value.
That level is fairly easy to identify, by asking:
•what are the best features of your town that you want to preserve? and
•what are the problems you think your town needs to address?
What would you answer for your own community? Here are some “best features” from Englehart:
•small, friendly, family town, great place to raise children;
•enough of the right amenities for things to do: swimming pool, arena, gym, golf course, curling club, community hall, playgrounds, public library, picturesque park, a zoo nearby (Earlton), volunteer fire department;
•hospital, medical and dental centre, chiropractor, health unit;
•primary and high schools;
•affordable housing for newcomers;
•nicely laid out, clean, neat homes and gardens, snowmobile friendly;
•lots of service clubs that organize and contribute to special community events; and
•strong Christian values evidenced by many active churches.
Among perceived problems, the Englehart list includes:
•aging and deteriorating infrastructure;
•young individuals and families are leaving the area;
•telecommunication system needs upgrading and modernizing;
•the railroad is phasing out and we don’t have an airport;
•economic downturn contributes to farm bankruptcies and discourages new business;
•more purchasing out of town challenges local business people unduly; and
•rising independence on social and government assistance, by individuals as well as employers and entrepreneurs.
Again, how does your town compare?
In Englehart and Atikokan, most people think the positives considerably outweigh the negatives–for now. But “status quo” is a mirage: in living systems nothing says constant, and everything affects everything else.
Planning and implementation of plans is essential to prevent regression, and to achieve and maintain what we value.
Linda Wiens is president of Quetico Centre, Northwestern Ontario’s premier retreat and conference centre and a consulting organization.